media update’s Christine Gerber unpacks these developments and why they’re important.
Instagram’s new screenshot icon
The news: On Monday, 12 February,
Instagram announced the testing of this new feature. Users included in the test have been notified that the next time they take a screenshot of a friend’s Story, their friend will see a camera shutter logo next to the screenshot.
Why does it matter? This feature could help Instagram understand what is keeping people on the platform.
Instagram users screenshot a Story or image if the content they have seen is engaging or shareable.
This is great for Instagram users that want their content to be shared, or for brands that want their Stories to get greater reach. However, if someone is taking screenshots of your personal pictures, you’d want to know.
This feature is also very similar to the one on Snapchat. It seems that social networks are becoming more and more alike – implementing similar features so they don’t fall behind.
Facebook’s new ‘breaking news’ section in Watch
The news: Facebook is going to create a news section in its video streaming platform, Facebook Watch. The Stories are said to be original content created for Facebook alone.
Why does this matter? This is an unusual move on Facebook’s side, considering it was trying to move the content shown on Facebook’s News Feed away from the news, focusing more on family and friend-related posts.
This could mean that Facebook sees value in providing news stories, but only if it’s coming from the social platform itself – in order to earn ad revenue.
Hopefully, this means that there will be more well-researched news reporting on the platform, as opposed to fake news, seeing as it’s being distributed by the company itself. The news will also likely be local as on Monday, 29 January,
Facebook announced that it will prioritise local news content.
So for South Africans, don’t expect Facebook Watch to show you news about Trump or India’s new Bollywood film. Once the ‘breaking news’ feature has been rolled out, expect local content. It has not yet been confirmed when this feature will be available.
Snap Map is moving outside of Snapchat
The news: In case you’ve never heard of Snap Map, it’s a crowdsourced, interactive feature that allows users to see what’s going on in the world.
Snap Map can broadcast your location to your Snapchat friends if you’re logged into the app. The map is, however, only available to Snapchat users..
However, on Monday, 12 February, Wired writer Louise Mastakis reported that this problem will be resolved. Snapchat announced that Snap Map will now be available outside of Snapchat, on the Internet.
You can now embed Snap Map content into a web page or other social media platforms. Snap Map content, just like Snapchat, will be ephemeral, meaning the content disappears after a certain period of time. In Snap Map’s case, the content disappears after 30 days.
Snap Map content will display for a longer time than regular Snapchat Stories, which only last 24 hours. You can contribute to the map by sharing your snap from Snapchat to the ‘Our Story’ section.
In other news, Snapchat is testing a feature that will allow you to share Snapchat Stories elsewhere on the web. Users in Canada and Australia can now hold down on any one of their Official Stories and share it on the Internet.
Why does this matter? Snapchat is in constant competition with Instagram, which continues to copy Snapchat’s features.
However, it finally seems like Snapchat is gaining the upper hand by adding a new type of feature that allows users to share content anytime, from anywhere.
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Need another recap of what’s been happening in the world of social media? Read more in our article, Social media news you missed: Instagram, Playfull, and Snap Inc.
*Image courtesy of Freepik